Austrian Linzer Cookies
Description
Bakers often include chopped nuts and various spices in the ingredients. I added crushed walnuts, cinnamon, and lemon zest to the dough. For the filling, use any thick jam—mine is strawberry and orange. The finished cookies turn out absolutely magical and incredibly delicious. Serve them cooled or slightly warm.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Prepare all the necessary ingredients. The butter should be soft, so take it out of the refrigerator an hour before you start cooking.
- 2
Step 2
Place the soft butter in a bowl, cut into small cubes, and beat with a mixer until creamy.
- 3
Step 3
Add powdered sugar and egg yolks to the whipped butter. Beat these ingredients with a mixer until a smooth mixture is obtained.
- 4
Step 4
Lightly toast the walnut kernels in a dry skillet until they turn slightly golden, then chop them using your preferred method: either cut with a knife or place in a blender bowl and process for 15-20 seconds. Add the chopped walnuts to the bowl with the other ingredients, along with lemon zest and cinnamon.
- 5
Step 5
Mix everything with a spatula until all ingredients are fully combined.
- 6
Step 6
Sift the flour with the baking powder into the resulting homogeneous mixture, and add a pinch of salt.
- 7
Step 7
Knead by hand into a very soft, elastic dough. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate on a shelf for one hour.
- 8
Step 8
Then roll out the chilled dough on a work surface with a rolling pin into a layer about 2 mm thick. Cut out an even number of circles (5-7 cm in diameter) using a round cutter. In half of the dough circles, additionally cut out small shapes—mine are heart-shaped cutouts.
- 9
Step 9
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and carefully transfer all the cookie dough pieces onto it. The dough is quite fragile, so handle it gently to avoid breaking the structure. Bake the cookies for 12–15 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C.
- 10
Step 10
Let the baked cookies cool to room temperature, then start assembling: place 1 tsp of jam on one cookie round, then top it with a second cookie round that has a cut-out hole. Assemble all the cookies this way.
- 11
Step 11
Serve Linzer cookies, lightly dusted with powdered sugar.
- 12
Step 12
Ready. Serve at the table.